By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
It’s very easy and very difficult to go through a change of some sort. Here I explained how.
I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. I’m the head coach for JobSearch.Community. And I want to use myself as an example for the notion of adapting, changing and pivoting and tell a story of my own professional career and life. You know, when I got out of college back in the Stone Ages, you know, I was walking out with my club readying to slay animals. That’s how long ago it was. I graduated with no real relevant skills and found the one job that was open to me was being a recruiter.
And then being a recruiter, I had no special skills. I had an undergraduate degree in political science and went to work for a firm for a year and a half, with a partner, started a business. After a number of years divorced him, started my first business, wound up I think it was at that point I went to work for someone, um, let me go back. So, I worked for a year and a half. I started a business with a partner, started my first business and then a second name and then went to work for two different firms for like 15, 16 years before going out into recruiting again and then coaching. That is this quick summary of a lot of years.
Now, along the way I realized a number of things about myself and one was I don’t really like recruiting all that much. Yeah I like the activity and that was part of what I really thrived at. I loved the deal. I loved the successes but the frustrations were incredible but I did it because that’s what I thought I could do and the money was great. But you know I really wasn’t all that into doing it after a while.
So, from experiences that I developed with men’s groups, I got the idea of becoming a therapist in private practice, getting a master’s and then had the great fortune to meet my wife in graduate school. And with that, I made very clear decision to put my career change on hold because we wanted to do the house, the kid, the whole thing. I put it aside and waited and then came back to it a number of years later in order to make a transition into coaching. I share this story because frankly, there are times where you’re going to want to do something and it’s not going to be the right time and you’re just going to have to adapt.
Now adapting takes a lot of different forms. So for example, I went for a master’s and in doing so, I got a certain type of training that was really very helpful to me both in what I was hoping my career would be which would be a therapist in private practice. And the way I adapted it it was very effective for me as a headhunter. Even when I put my career change on hold, it was great for my relationship with my wife who I’d met there. It became a way that we could talk, that we had a common bond from that experience. We did psychoanalytic training together for a number of years. We each practiced etc. before I went into coaching.
Sometimes, you need to adapt to circumstances because they change and you could criticize yourself. “Oh I didn’t do it! What I wanted to,” and punish yourself but it’s not really useful. What I think you’re just better off doing is waiting for the right time and then making your pivot, to take the skills that you have, to move in a different direction.
For example, one of the things that I’ve done in my coaching is become an executive job search coach which takes my experience from search work and allows me to work as an ally to a senior job hunter and help them reposition themselves to the next organization, being clear I’m not functioning as a recruiter. I am their coach, helping them navigate between all these different directions that they have to contend with, answering their questions, translating circumstances and my background in search comes in remarkably helpful. And that becomes an . . . excuse me . . . I kind of jumped around there. That becomes a great pivot point for me in using my knowledge and experiences in a very different way because I don’t know if any little boy or girl who grows up and says, “I want to do executive job search coaching”. No one does that, do they? But from the experiences that I have, I’ve been able to create something very different that’s effective.
You can do your version of it but I think the key element here is having the patience to sort it out and then the courage to take the leap. As I’ve said in another video, it all starts with courage– the courage to make the change that’s necessary to have the life that you want. It starts there and being true to yourself, being of service to others and in a variety . . . I’ll get to some of the other things later on. But when all is said and done I want to encourage you to go out there, start looking at ways that you can make changes. Don’t rush unless you feel you’re you’re all ready and you’ve got it all lined up in your mind, and you’ve researched it and, even then, it might be useful to you for you to get some coaching, to go through some of these situations that might turn up as roadblocks along the way. I’d love to help you. Reach out to me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us. In the subject line, put the word coaching and we’ll figure out a time to speak. Have a great day. Take care!
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ careers
easier. Those things can involve job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues. He is the producer and former host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3000 episodes. Also, subscribe to JobSearchTV.com on YouTube
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You will find great info to help with your job search at my new site, JobSearch.Community Besides the video courses, books and guides, I answer questions from members daily about their job search. Leave job search questions and I will respond daily. Become an Insider+ member and you get everything you’d get as an Insider PLUS you can get me on Zoom calls to get questions answered. Become an Insider Premium member and we do individual and group coaching.
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